Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

Storm Lake, that 3,000-acre dishpan lake some 60 miles east of Sioux City has made walleye fishermen very happy the past three years.

The lake has traditionally ranked right up there with some of Iowa’s best, but consistent success was an elusive thing on this large shallow lake which tended to mud up big time if the wind blew.

That changed starting three years ago.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) estimate for walleye harvest in 2007 was 18,000 fish. In 2008 anglers took 9,300 and this year Lannie Miller, fisheries biologist at the Black Hawk station, estimates a harvest of at least 8,000 fish.

“Our creel survey shows we have had some over 100’ fish days this spring,” he says. “It’s been really good.”

So, what has changed.

Two things, Miller says.

One: dredging operations have improved water quality. Two: an 18- to 22-inch slot limit on walleyes has been imposed.

“The dredging has helped a lot,” Miller says. “Prior to the city of Storm Lake buying the dredge, we found that if we had a Secchi disk reading of 11 inches, anglers would catch walleyes.”

(Editor’s note: The Secchi disk is used to measure water transparency in lakes. It is mounted on a pole and lowered slowly into the water. The depth at which a pattern on the disk is no longer visible is a measure of transparency of the water.)

“If the reading was under that, catch rates would go down,” he said. “Walleyes are sight feeders and if they couldn’t see it (the lure) they couldn’t hit it.

“Now the Secchi Disk reading most of the time is above 11 inches and we’ve even had it at 21 and 22 inches so that has helped fishing,” he says.

“Some people think that if there is deeper water, there will be more walleye,” he says. “Well, there won’t be any more fish than what we put in. Deep water has taken away the possibility of winterkill and it has improved the water quality and that is the key.

“We still have some algae blooms later in the summer and that will knock clarity down and that’s what happened last August,” he says. “Fishing slowed way up due to the algae bloom.”

Prior to the 17- to 22-inch slot, the IDNR had a 15-inch minimum length limit on walleyes.

“Anglers were harvesting them as soon as they reached 15 inches and we were not seeing any big brood fish anymore,” he continues. “Storm Lake is an important brood fish lake so we went to that slot to move the brood fish up and not hurt the angler.

“To say that the slot limit has been well received by the angler is a huge understatement,” he smiles.

Prior to that anglers were harvesting only 2,500 to 3,000 walleyes each year.

“The only thing I am concerned about is that the harvest will be so heavy on those smaller fish that a lot of them won’t recruit into that slot. But we are still about two or three years away from having enough data to decide that.

“What we saw during spawn-taking operations this year is that the females for the second year in a row were bigger,” he continues. “We averaged 19.8 inches this year and for years and years prior to the 17- to 22- inch slot we were averaging just 18.5 to 19 and you just don’t get many eggs out of fish that small.

“What we saw during shocking studies this year was a whole bunch of emerald shiners and they are an excellent sign of good water quality. We also saw a very large year class of perch about 3-inches in length.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that with improved water quality we’re getting in Storm Lake that even some of the fish assemblage will start to change. Perch will never be a big issue in Storm Lake unless we get some veg because they spawn on vegetation, but every once in a while they bring off a good spawn.

“And then the white bass population is phenomenal,” he says. “We encourage anglers to harvest those fish as they are there for the taking and can stand the harvest. Catfish populations are also tremendous and this year in the spring crappie fishing was really good for 10- to 11-inch fish.

“So everything is pretty rosy-looking for Storm Lake right now,” he concludes. “We will have to continue to evaluate the walleye slot limit to make sure it is doing what we want it to do, and we gather that information during the spring spawn-taking operations when we handle 2,000 to 5,000 fish.

“But right now, we are sold on that slot limit and will be until our data shows otherwise,” he said.

And so are Storm Lake walleye anglers. In fact, they are smiling all the way to the frying pan.